Jr. Canucks serving opponents ca-knuckle sandwiches all year

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This article was published 15/12/2022 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After the St. James Jr. Canucks’ last season, in which the team marked a franchise-best 37-4-4 regular season record before cruising through the playoffs to Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League championship, it was a tall order for this year’s team to live up to the hype.

But just under halfway through the season, the Jr. Canucks are on pace to break last season’s record with just two losses through 22 games.

“We’ve been doing a lot of good things offensively,” head coach Blair Mooney said. “We’re putting up a lot of goals, and then we’re ranked first in the goals against category, as well. No complaints to start the year, so far.”

Mooney said with many players returning from last year’s championship team, a winning culture pervaded the locker room from day one.

“Guys just developed, as simple as it sounds, a liking for winning. Once you do it lots and you get comfortable with it and go long stretches without losing, once you lose it becomes a bigger deal… When we lose a game, you can tell it really bugs them,” Mooney said.

When defending champions win as often as the Jr. Canucks have the past two seasons, that puts a target on the team’s back every game, Mooney said.

“That’s one of the main points that our coach brings up before every game, is that every team is going to bring their best against us… Every team wants to beat us,” defenceman Rory Neill said.

Neill said that leads to teams trying a broad spectrum of strategies to slow the Jr. Canucks down, but it also helps to battle-test the team. That means the team has to remain alert at all times, something both Neill and Mooney expect will help the team down the stretch.

Neill has been doing his part in the team’s mid-season success. Despite being a defenceman, Neill sits atop the league in scoring with 26 goals and 19 assists in 21 games, including a hat trick in his last game before press time, a 15-0 drubbing of the Stonewall Jets. Averaging over two points a game is extraordinary for any position and almost unheard of for a defender.

“This year pucks have just kind of found my stick and it’s starting to go in a lot,” he said.

Doesn’t hurt the team that two other Jr. Canucks, Kale Price and Tyrone Willan, sit at number two and three respectively atop the list of the league’s top point-getters.

Another major player in the team’s success has been goaltender Noah Gilbert. After topping the playoffs in goals against average in last year’s championship run, he’s kept the momentum going this season, leading the league with an astounding 1.80 goals against average and .931 save percentage in 15 starts, as of press time.

“Definitely some of the best hockey I’ve played in a long, long time. I’m for sure proud and happy with how I’ve been playing, but I can’t thank the team enough for how they’ve played in front of me… When your team averages five and half to six goals a game, it definitely makes the job easier,” Gilbert said.